By Pritha Sarkar
SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) – Southampton gave their long-suffering fans something to cheer about with a surprise 0-0 draw with Manchester City on Saturday that saw the rock bottom team avoid tying Derby County as the worst Premier League side in history.
Pep Guardiola’s City remained third in the table on 65 points with two games remaining in their bid for Champions League qualification. Newcastle United and Chelsea, who meet on Sunday, are only two points behind. Nottingham Forest, who also have a game in hand, trail by four.
Aston Villa breathed life into their Champions League hopes with a 1-0 victory over Bournemouth that lifted them to sixth, and just two points behind Manchester City, as the contest for a top-five finish remains wide open.
Brentford’s pursuit of a first-ever European qualification gained strength with their 1-0 victory over already-relegated Ipswich Town, while Brighton & Hove Albion claimed a 2-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers to keep them within touching distance of playing in Europe next season.
Fulham’s hopes of European football next season are fading fast, however, after they slipped to a fourth league defeat in five games with a 3-1 loss to Everton.
Already-relegated Southampton had looked likely to equal Derby County’s season-low tally of 11 points in 2007-08, but the draw moved them to 12 as their fans at a sun-drenched St Mary’s Stadium sung loudly in celebration.
Manchester City thoroughly dominated with 26 shots to the home side’s two, but Southampton defended in numbers, particularly in the dying minutes, to deny them.
Their game plan drew criticism from City’s Ruben Dias.
“It’s frustrating to play against a team like them. They don’t even try to play, just wasting time the whole game,” Diaz told Sky Sports.
“They are just sitting around. We tried every way… but we didn’t score.”
Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was proud of his team.
“We’ve had a tough, tough season, we’ve had tough Monday mornings after heavy defeats,” Ramsdale told Sky Sports. “Today we put smiles on the Southampton fans’ faces. It’s just a relief to be honest.”
Villa’s Ollie Watkins flicked in a first-half winner, taking him ahead of Gabriel Agbonlahor as the club’s all-time scorer with 75 league goals.
“I think it is massive for us,” Watkins told Sky. “There are a lot of teams that are pushing for Champions League spots and it is going down to the wire. Getting that goal to break the record for this club is massive and something I had my eye on when I came to the club.”
The visitors had Jacob Ramsey sent off for a second yellow card in the 80th to set up a nervous finish as late-goal specialists Bournemouth finally came to life but could not find an equaliser.
Bournemouth, who could have moved up to eighth, remain in 10th spot with their outside challenge for Europe running out of steam.
At Portman Road, Brentford won their fourth in a row on a first-half header by Kevin Schade to leave them eighth in the table with 55 points, while Ipswich are 18th.
Schade scored in the 18th minute when he met Bryan Mbeumo’s corner and steered the ball into the far corner.
LASER FOCUSED
“I see a strong team on form, we have got the momentum which is important. We are close to finishing eighth which would be the best position ever in the league. We are laser focused,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank told the BBC.
At Wolverhampton, goals from Danny Welbeck and substitute Brajan Gruda saw Brighton move up one place to ninth, level on 55 points with Brentford. Wolves fell to 14th.
Should Manchester City defeat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final this month, an eighth-place league finish would secure qualification for the Conference League.
“I think we were up against a good side and they’re in good form. We had a gameplan and we played it out well,” Welbeck told Premier League Productions.
Fulham’s loss at Craven Cottage saw them remain 11th in the table with 51 points from 36 games, four points adrift of eighth place, while Everton climbed one spot to 13th.
Raul Jimenez gave Fulham a deserved lead in the first half with a powerful header before Vitaliy Mykolenko’s deflected shot from the edge of the box levelled the score on the stroke of halftime.
Two goals in three minutes from Michael Keane and Beto, who profited from an error by goalkeeper Bernd Leno, turned the game in Everton’s favour in the second half and dealt their host’s European dreams a heavy blow.
“It is the story of the last three or four games,” Fulham manager Marco Silva told BBC. “Goals have come from set-pieces. We have to be willing to fight, do our job well and we didn’t. It’s about concentration and focus.”
(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in Ruben Dias’ surname in paragraph 8)
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Manchester, England; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
